Broadband wireless networks based on various standards (e.g., Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.16e based Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) standard and the evolution thereof to IEEE 802.16m) provide various types of services such as voice, packet data, and/or the like. Recently; IEEE 802.16m and IEEE 802.16e based standards are being considered to enable Machine to Machine (M2M) communications for applications such as smart grid, vehicular tracking, healthcare, and/or the like. The security is one of the important requirements of the standards as the standards will be used for many critical applications such as health care and smart grid.
Several types of control information is exchanged between a mobile station or M2M device and a base station to communicate with each other. Typically, control information is exchanged in the form of control messages which are transmitted on signaling connection or flow established between the M2M device and the base station. According to the related art, control messages are protected using cipher based message authentication code (CMAC) algorithm, where a 8 byte CMAC is generated using the CMAC construction as specified in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-38B and appended to the control message before transmission on the signaling connection or flow. Optionally, the content of the control message may also be encrypted. A 3 byte counter or packet number (PN) is also used to provide protection against replay attack. The counter is incremented after transmission of every control message. The tuple <control security key, PN> is never repeated. The sequence number of the security key used to generate the CMAC is also transmitted together with the control message. The method of protecting the control messages adds an overhead of 12 bytes to each control message. Typically, the control message protected using the CMAC value is carried in a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU). The MAC PDU carrying the protected control message includes of a MAC header and a payload. The payload includes the control message followed by security information including security key sequence number, reserved bits, the packet number and the CMAC value.
Control information is also exchanged in the form of MAC signaling headers which are special type of MAC headers. The MAC signaling headers are transmitted to a receiving station in MAC PDUs. It can be noted that, a MAC PDU carrying a MAC signaling header does not include any payload other than the MAC signaling header. MAC signaling headers are very short in size (several bytes) but carry vital information. Generally, MAC signaling headers are 6 to 7 bytes in size. The MAC signaling header may include a flow identifier field, a type field, a length field, and a content field. The flow identifier field indicates a flow identifier associated with the MAC signaling header. The type field indicated the type of MAC signaling header. The length field indicates the length of the MAC signaling header. The content field carry actual content of the MAC signaling header, according to the related art. MAC signaling headers are exchanged between a mobile station or M2M device and a base station in an unsecured manner.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.